24. Beginning of the Second Generation

A year later, they were blessed with their first child, a daughter named Chung Sweed Cheng who was born on December 29, 1943. This is the beginning of the Chung Chow and Lee Mooi's lineage. They had nine children - five boys and four girls. It is very interesting to note that out of the nine children, eight were born in the same house and attended to by the same mid-wife. Only the last child was born in the Taiping district hospital.

Father Chung Chow and his family had moved into the house at 15 Tupai Road at about the time the Japanese invaded Malaya in 1942. They had rented the two front rooms on the ground floor. They were not the main tenants then as several more families occupied the rest of the rooms in the house. The mid-wife who attended to our mother was a very good friend of the family.

Her name was Fong Sai Mooi and she was trained at the Perak Maternity Hospital in Ipoh. She and her husband, Tuck Ong, lived in a rented room above the New World Photo Studio where our parents had their wedding photo taken. She was a very dedicated and efficient mid-wife, and her services cost about $8 to $10 then.

Two years later, brother Chu Tai was born on September 2, 1945, at about the time the war ended when the Japanese soldiers surrendered, and the British forces returned to Malaya and established the British Military Administration to restore law and order. After the British returned, there were much rebuilding and restructuring of the country damaged by the war. It was during this period that brother Chew Pheng was born on February 10, 1947.